Why is your front line only 10ft in front of your back line? Weren't you the one saying your combats often start with enemies 50'-80' away?
It's not exactly rare to have two relatively compact groups that are at a moderate distance from one another. The way runarounds work in 5e is more an aesthetic issue than really a functional issue: the visual is "Get behind me and I'll protect you", not "get 15' behind me and I'll protect you".
I mean... that feels more like lack of imagination or dumb hollywood tropes than reality to me. Why would standing directly in front of someone protect them from a 15' tall T-rex? I makes no sense.
That's because it has reach, not because it avoids opportunity attacks. It's quite hard to run past someone who doesn't want to let you past(the reason for this isn't actually opportunity attacks, but it's hard to implement in a turn-based system, which is why games often fall back on zones of control).
3e had AoO galore it just didn't have all the forced movement options which could combo it into a build as easily and people played the heck out of 3e/3.5. I suspect if we had a covid like event and gaming youtubers like critical role at the time it would easily be as big as 5e got, probably bigger.
3e was a bit unwieldy and the whole 5' step did tend to produce fairly static combats, but I feel it should be possible to do something about "I run around the front line and attack the back line and don't draw any opportunity attacks because I never got out of range of the front line" without going that far. Treating any creature's threatened area as difficult terrain (can ignore at the cost of an AoO) might do the job.
I agree that it's a bit silly that a Tabaxi Monk can literally run circles around an enemy without a problem but then have issues stepping 5ft backwards.
I've not yet implemented it, but my proposed solution might be that you can only move 10ft without provoking AoO. To illustrate, imagine a grid with a monster on one square. If you're on the square next to them directly to the north of them, then you can move to the squares NE, E, NW and W (so long as those squares are still adjacent to them). If you try to go a square further away (like it is now in 5e) or if you try to go to the SW, S or SE squares, you provoke an AoO. My in world justification is that making such moves take a lot of concentration, which is like to be broken by a stumble as you hit something, or a sudden sound etc, which opens you up to a sudden attack.
That'd provide a disincentive for the "I'm going to do a pole dance on you to avoid an AoO" manoeuvre while still making mad dashes feasible.
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That's because it has reach, not because it avoids opportunity attacks. It's quite hard to run past someone who doesn't want to let you past(the reason for this isn't actually opportunity attacks, but it's hard to implement in a turn-based system, which is why games often fall back on zones of control).
I agree that it's a bit silly that a Tabaxi Monk can literally run circles around an enemy without a problem but then have issues stepping 5ft backwards.
I've not yet implemented it, but my proposed solution might be that you can only move 10ft without provoking AoO. To illustrate, imagine a grid with a monster on one square. If you're on the square next to them directly to the north of them, then you can move to the squares NE, E, NW and W (so long as those squares are still adjacent to them). If you try to go a square further away (like it is now in 5e) or if you try to go to the SW, S or SE squares, you provoke an AoO. My in world justification is that making such moves take a lot of concentration, which is like to be broken by a stumble as you hit something, or a sudden sound etc, which opens you up to a sudden attack.
That'd provide a disincentive for the "I'm going to do a pole dance on you to avoid an AoO" manoeuvre while still making mad dashes feasible.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.